I want to become a minimalist...how about you?

So what is this whole minimalism thing all about? To tell you the truth, it’s quite simple: to be a minimalist you must live with less than 100 things, and you can’t own a car or a home or a television, and you can’t have a career, and you have to be able to live in exotic hard-to-pronounce places all over the world, and you have to start a blog, and you can’t have any children, and you have to be a young white male from a privileged background.

OK, we’re joking. Obviously. But people who dismiss minimalism as some sort of fad usually mention any of the above “restrictions” as to why they could “never be a minimalist.” The truth is that minimalism isn’t about any of those things, but it can help you accomplish many of them if you’d like. If you desire to live with less material possessions or not own a car or a television or to travel all over the world, then minimalism can lend a hand. But that’s not the point.

Minimalism is a tool that can assist you in finding freedom. Freedom from fear. Freedom from worry. Freedom from overwhelm. Freedom from guilt. Freedom from depression. Freedom from the trappings of the consumer culture we’ve built our lives around. Real freedom.

That doesn’t mean there’s anything inherently wrong with owning material possessions. Today’s problem seems to be the meaning we assign to our stuff. We tend to give too much meaning to our things, often forsaking our health, our relationships, our passions, our personal growth, and our desire to contribute beyond ourselves. Want to own a car or a house? Great, have at it! Want to raise a family and have a career? If these things are important to you, then that’s wonderful. Minimalism simply allows you to make these decisions more consciously, more deliberately.

There are plenty of successful minimalists who lead appreciably different lives. Our friend Leo Babauta has a family and six children and lives in San Francisco. Joshua Becker has a career he enjoys, a family he loves, and a house and a car in suburbia. Conversely, Colin Wright owns 51 things and travels all over the world, while Tammy Strobel and her husband live in a “tiny house” and are completely car-free in Portland. Even though each of these people are different, they all share two things in common: they are minimalists, and minimalism has allowed them to pursue purpose-driven lives.

But how can these people be so different and yet still be minimalists? That brings us back to our original question: what is minimalism? If we had to sum it up in a single sentence, we would say, Minimalism is a tool used to rid yourself of life’s excess in favor of focusing on what’s important so you can find happiness, fulfillment, and freedom.

Minimalism has helped us:

Eliminate our discontent
Reclaim our time
Live in the moment
Pursue our passions
Discover our missions
Experience real freedom
Create more, consume less
Focus on our health
Grow as individuals
Contribute beyond ourselves
Rid ourselves of excess stuff
Discover purpose in our lives
By incorporating minimalism into our lives, we’ve finally been able to find lasting happiness. And let’s face it: that’s what we’re all looking for, isn’t it? We all want to be happy. Minimalists search for happiness not through things, but through life itself. Thus, it’s up to you to determine what is necessary and what is superfluous in your life.

Through our essays we intend to present to you ideas of how to achieve a minimalist lifestyle without adhering to a strict code or an arbitrary set of rules. A word of warning, though: It isn’t easy to take the first steps, but your journey towards minimalism gets much easier—and more rewarding—the farther you go. The first steps often take radical changes in your mindset, actions, and habits. Fret not, we want to help; that’s why we’ve documented our experiences, so you can learn from our failures and successes, applying what we’ve learned to your own situation, assisting you in leading a more meaningful life.

Replies to This Discussion

I think I'm going to be the kind of person who doesn't spend much or get a lot of things because of how I've been all my life. I've been very good at saving money and don't submit to my whims. I think the issues we are facing nowadays are people living above their means and not knowing how to survive financially. There are many reasons that could also be making people unhappy with their lives.

Also I think you'd be surprised to know that American kids aren't even as knowledgeable about technology as compared to other European nations. The current generation is generally struggling with math, science, technology, and money. This a bad combo as it all ties together as far as understanding our world and making it better. Adolescents here have many issues as compared to like nations simply because there is something that is blocking these people from understanding very important things. The baby boomers basically had everything given to them on a silver plate and when they went to college their dreams mostly came true. Now they expect these generations to do the same but times are different and falling back on simpler ideas isn't cutting the thick ice.

I was kind of instinctively inclined to blame Generation X. When I think of them, I think of a bunch of people who didn't have to get a haircut and get a real job, and wore a lot of flannel and ripped blue jeans or, worse, whatever we're calling what people wore in the 80's. I can't help but to wonder if maybe it's because they didn't have a war. It's kind of not fair. I get war and poverty, and my parents got... I don't know, Whitesnake?

I was kind of instinctively inclined to blame Generation X. When I think of them, I think of a bunch of people who didn't have to get a haircut and get a real job, and wore a lot of flannel and ripped blue jeans or, worse, whatever we're calling what people wore in the 80's.

Today's hipsters are a lot like them, except that they (most of them) have an iPod, iPad, iPhone, and Macbook.

Personally, I blame Australopithecus, and their laziness when it came to developing tool use. That's where all our troubles began. Think how great things would be today if they had just gotten off their butts.